Echocardiography in the evaluation of the cyanotic newborn infant.

Echocardiographic studies were performed in 45 sick newborn infants with cyanotic congenital heart disease, in 6 newborn infants with cyanosis of non-cardiac origin, and in 50 normal newborn infants without heart disease.No false positive diagnosis was made in I2 cases of the hypoplastic left heart syndrome identified by a small left ventricular dimension (o-II mm), hypoplastic or atretric mitral valves, and hypoplastic or atretic aortic roots (0-7 mm).Pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum -5 cases -was identified by a small right ventricular dimension (o-6 mm), and a hypoplastic tricuspid valve and tricuspid atresia - 2 cases -by a small right ventricular dimension (o-3 mm) with an absent tricuspid valve.A strip chart facility which allowed thepresentation ofseveral areas of cardiac interest within the one recording had distinct advantages over polaroidfilms in the recognition of discontinuity of the interventricular septum with the aorta, which was the hallmark of tetralogy of Fallot, and in determining the abnormal spatial relations between the great vessels in cases of D-transposition of the great arteries.Echocardiography is a safe and accurate method of diagnosis of congenital heart disease in the newborn and adds considerably to the evaluation before cardiac catheterizaion.